The American envoy for special missions Ric Grenell said on Tuesday that an American who had previously been arrested in the veteran of the United Venezuelan Air Force, Joseph St. Clair, had been released.
“Joe St. Clair is back in the United States. I met Venezuelan officials in a neutral country today to negotiate a strategy in America First,” he wrote in a publication about X. The neutral country was Antiqua, said an American official.
The family representative Jonathan Franks issued a statement of the St. Clair family, saying that they were “happy to confirm the safe release of his son.”
The United States ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenelll, expects the arrival of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at Tegel airport in Berlin, on May 30, 2019.
Odd Andersen/AFP through Getty Images, File
“This news suddenly came, and we are still processing it, but we are overwhelmed with joy and gratitude,” said Scott and Patti St. Clair, Joseph St. Clair’s parents.
St. Clair had been arrested in Venezuela since November 2024, although it is not clear to what he was accused.
Venezuela released six other Americans at the end of January after Grenell traveled to the country.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston
